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Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoTom Dodge | DISPATCHA visitor undergoes a security check at the entrance to the Franklin County Government Center on S. High Street. A recent review of courthouse security recommended that the civilian security officers come under the sheriff’s purview.

Members of the union representing Franklin County deputy sheriffs are voting on a new contract
that includes an agreement to allow lower-paid civilian employees to work in the county jails.

The contract would give deputies a 2.5 percent pay raise retroactive to the first of the year
and increases of 2.75 percent and 3 percent in each of the next two years. A memorandum of
understanding lays out what the county and union would agree to on allowing some of the jobs in
county jails to be performed by civilians.

A management study of the sheriff’s office this year recommended using civilians to answer
telephones, enter data and handle some control-room operations in the jails. These are all duties
that would be allowed for in the memorandum.

The study also called for hiring as many as 175 additional employees, saying the county jails
are critically understaffed.

Deputy sheriffs represented by the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9 have been
working without a contract since the most-recent one expired in December. Voting on the new
contract is expected to last through the weekend, and tabulating the results could take a few
days.

Both the county commissioners and Sheriff Zach Scott would get something they want in the new
agreement, with additional memorandums calling for the hiring of more deputies to work on the
sheriff’s SWAT team and to oversee courthouse security. The agreements state that bringing civilian
employees into the jail and taking over the court security operations will not result in a loss of
deputies. The commissioners were briefed Thursday on a budget proposal that would add deputies to
Scott’s training academy as well as create a position to oversee bringing the county’s court
security officers under the sheriff’s control.

Security officers, who screen visitors to county buildings, are civilians who work for the
county’s public-facilities management agency. They do not have arrest powers or carry guns. A
recent review of courthouse security recommended that the officers become part of the sheriff’s
office. The budget request the commissioners are expected to approve on Tuesday would begin that
process.

In a letter to commissioners, Dave Masterson, the sheriff’s director of administrative services,
wrote that five new hires are needed for the sheriff’s training academy in part so they will have “
the time needed to get trained in courthouse security tactics and practices to have a base training
program to offer the security guards who will eventually be employed by the sheriff’s office.”

The letter also says the sheriff’s office needs an additional, captain-level position to review
and update court security procedures, and staffing needs to ensure a smooth transition when the
sheriff’s office takes over courthouse security in 2014.

Hiring the additional training deputies and captain will cost the county $84,768 this year and
$687,574 next year, according to the proposal.

Scott envisions that all security officers, while still civilians, will be trained at his
academy and supervised by deputy sheriffs.

The county expects to spend about $4.7 million next year on courthouse security. That will pay
for 63 security officers, six civilian supervisors, 14 control-room operators and one control-room
supervisor. Eighteen deputies would work there to provide someone at each post who has arrest
powers.

County Administrator Don Brown said he wouldn’t comment on the proposed contract and doesn’t
want the commissioners to comment, because doing so could be considered trying to influence the
vote. Scott also declined to comment.